Sherwood Dungeon
Sherwood Dungeon is a free-to-play fantasy MMORPG created by Maid Marian Entertainment Inc. Since it is playable from your browser downloading is unecessary, although you must have Shockwave 7 or better to play. History This game was created by Gene Endrody and Maid Marian Entertainment Inc. in around 2002. Sherwood Dungeon is a groundbreaking game as a completely free, 3D, Shockwave MMORPG, with it's profits coming entirely from advertisements, and a few in-game options (such as Pets and Mounts). With over 1.5 million unique visitors a month, it is one of the largest and fastest growing browser-based games on the net. The Basics Logging in: Unlike most other MMORPGs, you do not need to sign up for an account to play, but there is an option to do so. You just type in a character name, and start playing. The next time you play on the same computer, you will still have the character, no matter what name you put in. However, if you have an account, you can play on computers other than your usual one and still have the same character, you merely need enter a password. Making a character Whenever you wish, you can change the way your character looks. There are five different general options for your character's appearance: knight (male and female), viking (male and female), skeleton (genderless), and gladiator (presumably male). You can also choose from a variety of different colors for your character. The female characters have the further option of changing hair-styles, and the gladiator has options for changing helmets. Controls: The controls are relatively simple, making the game easy to play, but fun. The Arrow keys control direction (up key for forward, back for backwards, and the left and right keys to change direction) and, if you hold the Up and Down keys simultaneously, dancing. Ctrl button attacks, and the Tab key activates the amulet's special attack. Ctrl and Shift together let you block attacks. Battling: Player Vs. Player and Player Vs. Monster combat is quite easy to understand, but in the Dungeon, PvP is prohibited, and in NPC zones, all combat is prohibited. You can fight multiple opponents at one time, but since level doesn't matter in Sherwood PvP, this can be inconvenient. For every monster (or player) you kill, you gain a certain amount of experience points, leveling up upon reaching a high enough total amount of experience or XP. Guessing from the levels that certain players can achieve by using Cheat Engines, there likely isn't a maximum level to which you can level up to. Occasionally, a monster will drop something, most of the time a weapon or a shield. Depending on your level, you have a certain amount of health points, and the opponent, player or monster, has health points too. The first to reach 0 health points dies. There are armor points which vary according to any rings, amulets, and shields you might be wearing. These points help reduce the amount of damage your opponent(s) inflict. Death: In this game, when you die, you respawn often at or near the place where you first appeared upon entering the island. You do not lose any items, levels, experience, coins, or health when dead. Technically, nothing bad happens to you when you die. Areas: There are 7 islands, and one presumably bottomless dungeon. The main island, where you start out, and where you end up everytime you log back in, is Sherwood Castle. As the name suggests, there is a large castle in the middle (Sherwood Castle), and a woodland surrounding it. There are 7 other islands known as Haunted Palm, Frost Bite, The Lost lagoon, Isle of the Ancients, which is the same as the original Sherwood Island, and the Isle of Heroes, which (in spite of its epic-sounding name) is basically a training arena. The latest islands that has been added is the Stone Circle Island, which is also used as an arena, and the Battle Arena. Sherwood Castle has portals to each of these islands, and is the only place where you can enter The Dungeon without using a code. When you enter the dungeon, you will be teleported to the level equivalent to your XP level (if you are level 1, you are teleported to dungeon level 1, Ect.). Each level of the dungeon and island has different (and in the case of the dungeon, subsequently harder) monsters. Items There are many items which you can recieve, from merchants spread across the islands, from monster drops (rare), and chest and barrels in the dungeon. These chests and barrels seem to be the only place you can get gold coins, besides selling your own items. There are weapons, shields, potions, amulets, rings, gold coins, and Runes and Scrolls. For more info, see Items. Weapons The weapons, you can wear either in your right hand, left hand, or have one in each hand. These weapons can each do certain damage on players. Weapons can be of any type (from swords to axes, maces to hammers, and more), and of any color. Each color represents a certain "element". Red=fire (ruby), green=poison (emerald), Blue=frost (sapphire),purple=shadow (amethyst). You can wear weapons according to your level or less (if you are level 10, you can wear level 10 weapons and under, but not over). Each weapon can hit a certain amount of damage, randomly hurting opponents according to how the opponent is moving, if they are blocking, what position they are in, and so-forth. Amulets An Amulet is a magic necklace which allows you to unleash a special attack on your opponent, which sets them ablaze with an "elemental" fire. This does a certain amount of damage, depending on your, and the amulet's, level, the type of you opponent (if monster), and the type of the amulet itself. Like weapons, you can only wear your level or less. To use it, press the Tab key. You must wait for the blue bar right under the health bar on the left corner of your screen to recharge before using it again. Each one also adds to your armor points. Shields Like amulets and weapons, you can only wear your level or less shield. While all they do is add to your armor points, shields do so much more substantially than any other item that has this function. There are bucklers (round, viking-like shields), kite shields, box shields (inspired by those used by Roman Soldiers), and "regular" shield-shaped shields. They are not based on elements. Rings Rings, like amulets and shields, affect your armor points, and can only be worn with the right levels. They also can affect your health points, and in the case of Rings of Healing, can make you recover it faster. Health Potions Health Potions, like their name would suggest, heal damage sustained in combat. They heal 50% of your health. These can only be found in chests and barrels in the Dungeon. But for some reason, likely to make PvP more fair, health potions cannot be used in Sherwood Castle. Runes and Scrolls These scrolls can 'summon' special 'flashing' weapons, but specific types and amounts of runes are required to activate them. Runes and scrolls are found only in chests and barrels in the Dungeon. Pets and Mounts Pets and Mounts can be bought for $5 and will give you advantages in the game. A mount will double your speed, and pets will help you to defeat monsters. Currently there are four items available in this category: Horse, Wolf, Dragon and Spider.